PortastaticSatellite BallroomTuesday, October 17 music A brief history of Portastatic:Way back in the early ‘90s, there was this guy from Chapel Hill, Mac McCaughan, who wrote songs and sang in this band, Superchunk. Great band—had what I consider the single best anti-authoritarian anthem of the ‘90s, “Slack Motherfucker” (yes, it was better than “Smells Like […]
PortastaticSatellite BallroomTuesday, October 17 music A brief history of Portastatic:Way back in the early ‘90s, there was this guy from Chapel Hill, Mac McCaughan, who wrote songs and sang in this band, Superchunk. Great band—had what I consider the single best anti-authoritarian anthem of the ‘90s, “Slack Motherfucker” (yes, it was better than “Smells Like […]
Catch a Fire (PG-13, 98 minutes) Aussie Phillipe Noyce (The Quiet American, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Patriot Games) directs this dark political thriller set in South Africa during the turbulent 1980s. Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) portrays real-life hero Patrick Chamusso who was jailed and tortured after being wrongly suspected of sabotage at an oil refinery where he […]
I saw Dave Chappelle\’s movie Half Baked last weekend (I know, I\’m the last person in town to see it), and Chappelle is very funny, but it got me wondering.
Andy Friedman, painter and visual artist (he’s a cartoonist for The New Yorker), and singer-songwriter, has a strong Charlottesville connection that runs through local folk star Paul Curreri. Curreri says that Friedman was such a serious art student at Pratt, in New York City, that he became disillusioned after a gum eraser battle broke out in a professor-free classroom, and ultimately transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design. Friedman and Curreri were roommates at RISD, and later in Brooklyn, New York.
Eric ClaptonJohn Paul Jones ArenaThursday, October 12 music From a conversation with my 14-year-old companion on the way into Eric Clapton’s sold-out concert at the John last week: “It’ll be white kids and rich college students.” O.K., so maybe they’re not teaching about the Baby Boom in the schools anymore. Sure, Clapton attracts a segment […]
Man of the YearPG-13, 115 minutesNow Playing at Carmike Cinema 6 It’s always a bit depressing when you can imagine the entire pitch meeting that proceeded the making of a particular Hollywood film. I’m fairly confident the brainstorming session for Man of the Year went something like this: “How about Robin Williams as a wacky […]
Heavy Trash with The SadiesSatellite BallroomThursday, October 5 music You know, maybe you can have too much of a good thing. More than a few times in recent memory, I’ve attended concerts in our newly music-saturated little town, and been sadly disappointed at the lackluster size of the crowd. San Fran popster John Vanderslice drew […]
The DepartedR, 149 minutesNow playing at Seminole SquareCinema FourFamed New York director Martin Scorsese rarely abandons the Big Apple for another zip code. And only once before has he attempted a remake (1991’s juicy Cape Fear). But with the release of his newest film, he’s managed a surprising one-two punch. The Departed is a remake […]
They call themselves a new kind of record label, and their business plan makes room for old and new technology. Mark Fulton and John Guenin launched the online label Record Theory this past February, distributing CDs for seven bands, most of them local. Fulton and Guenin both grew up in town and graduated from UVA. […]
Dr. Feelgood: Billy Bob Thornton dispenses the details of deception in School for Scoundrels. School forScoundrelsPG-13, 100 minutesNow playing at CarmikeCinema 6Stephen Potter was a British humorist who penned a series of mock “self-help” books in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Potter’s books on Gamesmanship, Lifemanship and Oneupmanship purported to teach “ploys” for manipulating […]